Incognito: Vulgar text to teammate came from 'a place of love'

By pkuchinsky

Created 11/10/2013 - 2:07pm

Sunday, November 10, 2013 - 2:07pm

Atlanta, GA (CNN) — Suspended NFL player Richie Incognito said his alleged bullying of Miami Dolphin teammate Jonathan Martin is misunderstood because "people don't know how Jon and I communicate to one another."

Incognito acknowledged in an interview aired on "Fox NFL Sunday" that he used racist and vulgar language in voice mails and text messages to Martin, but said it was "coming from a place of love."
"No matter how bad and how vulgar it sounds, that's how we communicate," he told Fox Sports reporter Jay Glazer. "That's how our friendship was."

"For instance, a week before this went down, Jonathan Martin text me on my phone 'I will murder your whole F-ing family,'" Incognito told Glazer. "Now, do I think Jonathan Martin was going to murder my family? Not one bit."

Martin, 24, left the team last month because of "harassment that went far beyond the traditional locker room hazing," Martin's lawyer said. Days later, the Dolphins suspended Incognito, 30, for conduct detrimental to the team.

After the interview, which was recorded in Los Angeles on Saturday, Incognito let Glazer review his phone text messages with Martin. He counted 1,142 messages exchanged between the two men over the last year, Glazer reported.

"To say that it's offensive, absolutely," Glazer said.
Martin sent Incognito text messages three days after he left the team, Glazer said. One said, "Wassup man? The world's gone crazy lol I'm good tho congrats on the win" and another read, "Yeah I'm good man. It's insane bro but just know I don't blame you guys at all it's just the culture around football and the locker room got to me a little," Glazer reported.